Music Photography: Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott
Venue: Manchester O2 Academy, Manchester
Photographer: Simon J. Newbury
Show Date: 05.12.14
Support: Dry The River
Simon headed up to Manchester to catch up with Jacqui Abbott and Paul Heaton on tour. It was the second time Simon had photographed the pair in the space of week having been at Parr Hall in Warrington at the beginning of the week.
Music Photography: The Whisky Sessions Festival
Location: Victoria Warehouse, Manchester
Date: 22.11.14
Acts: I Am Kloot, British Sea Power, Dodgy, Tim Burgess, The Travelling Band, Admiral Fallow, Matthew & The Atlas, Treetop Flyers, Southern, Jon Allen, Emily Baker & The Red Clay Halo
Photographer: Simon J. Newbury
The Whisky Sessions Festival, staged at The Victoria Warehouse in Manchester, is a ground breaking new winter festival held inside at the huge warehouse near Media City. As well as two stages of music the Festival, as the name suggests, also affords festival goers the opportunity to sample some of the finest whiskies from Scotland, Ireland and even further afield including India.
Music Photography: The Gaslight Anthem
Venue: O2 Apollo, Manchester
Photographer: Tina Newbury
Show Date: 17.11.14
Support: Deer Tick, Bayside
Tina headed back up to Manchester to photograph The Gaslight Anthem of New Brunswick, New Jersey, performing live at The O2 Apollo on their latest European tour. Tina was at the same venue only a week ago to photograph Counting Crows. The Gaslight Anthem recently released their latest album “Get Hurt”.
Music Photography: Jamie T
Venue: Manchester Academy 1, Manchester
Photographer: Simon Newbury
Show Date: 07.11.2014
The busy few weeks of live music photography continued in Manchester. While Tina was over at Manchester Apollo to photograph Counting Crows preforming in front of a sell out crowd, Simon was across the city at Manchester Academy 1 to photograph Jamie T performing live to another sell out crowd.
Music Photography: Counting Crows
Venue: Manchester O2 Apollo, Manchester
Photographer: Tina Newbury
Show Date: 07.11.2014
We headed up to Manchester to cover two shows on the same night. Simon was over at The Manchester Academy to photograph Jamie T while Tina was not far away at the O2 Manchester Apollo to photograph Counting Crows on their latest UK tour.
Music Photography: Maverick Sabre
Venue: The Ritz, Manchester
Photographer: Tina Newbury
Show Date: 22.10.2014
Support: George The Poet
Tina headed up to Manchester to The Ritz as part of a busy week of live music photography for the both of us. We were back in Manchester at the weekend to photograph former Frankie Goes To Hollywood frontman Holly Johnson as Rotherham.
Support for rapper Maverick Sabre at The Ritz in Manchester came from George The Poet.
Thursday was quite an unusual day! Not only did I get to visit Media City in Manchester, I also got to meet and do a portrait of Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson. I took a late booking to head up to Media City to do a portrait of Sir Alex. As a football fan it was quite a nice prospect. As always with these celebrity portraits there isn’t a great deal of time set aside for the photography. If you ever saw the BBC film on The Queen being photographed by Annie Leibovitz you will know what I mean! A private audience with Sir Alex was something of a pleasure! Despite all the tales of “hair dryers” I found Sir Alex to be pleasant and engaging. We talked very briefly about Nantwich Town, where I am the official photographer, and then on to the shoot. I was thinking that the shot would end up in monochrome (it’s nice to have the freedom to choose). When I saw the colour version of my chosen portrait I felt it had a lot about it and so went for that choice. This is my portrait of Sir Alex Ferguson CBE
Sir Alex Ferguson Portrait by Simon J. Newbury Photography
Progress is being made in the Urban Portrait Book project. We have had discussions with a local publisher and we are confident we can go to press. We are looking for sponsors to help fund the initial run so any local businesses interested in getting involved are more than welcome!
It’s been a varied and busy time of late. The traditional wedding season has concluded and we had a very lovely visit to Wallasey Town Hall. Our bespoke books have started arriving from Italy and have been delivered to happy clients! We’ve had lots of comments on the wonderful layout created by Tina using her Graphic Design skills to the full!
As well finishing a last few Urban Portraits for the book we have had a few musician promo shoots. Tim Gallagher is finalising his recording and we had a great, if slightly chilly, shoot in Hassall Green beside a canal. Looking forward to hearing the EP and seeing the final artwork which will be designed by Tina! We’ve also been lucky to visit Whitby Morrison in Crewe for a shoot with Shaun & The Special Sauce. Whitby Morrison are the worlds leading manufacturer of ice cream vans. I’m also pleased to say that the company are sponsoring the Urban Portraits book. By bizarre coincidence straight after the shoot with Shaun I headed over to Nantwich Town for some press photos of Ed Whitby and Nantwich Town Chairman Jon Gold as Whitby Morrisson are sponsoring a stand at the Weaver!
I was also commissioned to photograph the recent Labour Party Conference held in Manchester. I produced a set of press photos covering the event and some of the fringe events. The highlight for me was meeting and photographing Eddie Izzard! I also got to photograph Lord Coe and Jonathan Edwards!
I am available for press work and I have recently been undertaking a variety of commissions for Cheshire East Council. I’ve been to Knutsford, Macclesfield, Handforth, Nantwich and Crewe to photograph a variety of events!
I’m also available for private commissions for Urban Portraits. If you would like to be photographed, please get in touch. I now have a site dedicated to the project: http://www.urbanportrait.co.uk
I am also organising a day of family/ kids/ pets photos in Nantwich. It will be a special event where you can come along and have a set of photos, then order online with delivery guaranteed by Christmas. More info to follow soon!!
The music loving people of Crewe were treated to a fine performance from Britpop legends Dodgy at The Box last week. They were kicking off their new tour of their latest studio album.
I met the guys during their rehearsal day and we did a photoshoot at The Box. I did portraits of the three band members as well as a set of group shots. The images will be on my website very soon as well as appearing on my Flickr stream and on the official Dodgy Facebook page!
The images are being well received and someone commented that it was a “good, honest photo” of the band. I love that description and its really what I strive to produce in my work!
The gig itself was amazing and Tina and I got loads of images of the performance!
Its been all go with music photography lately. I’ve also done a very interesting photoshoot with local legend Tom Seals. It was a very well organised shoot which was fairly technical but very rewarding. I won’t go into detail as I am sure Tom wants to have a grand launch of his new website which the images are for!
The same weekend saw the Reign Of Sirius shoot. They are a metal band from Macclesfield and travelled over for the shoot with their new members. It was a very pleasant shoot and I really like the final images (as do the band more importantly!!). I played them on my Radio show on Monday and I am sure that will be the first of many plays!
Tomorrow I have yet another shoot with emerging Crewe band Rockwood. Looking forward to photographing a band I have been friends with for ages now!
Quite a bit on next week musically as well. The Beautiful South are now The South and after a recent request for some images I did of the band a while back I am off to Birmingham to photograph them at the O2 Arena. Another band I photographed last year was the Australian Pink Floyd. They were at Chester Rocks. I supplied them with the images from the event and I’ll be photographing them next week at the Manchester Apollo.
Sandwiched between those two events I have an after dinner event to photograph with Yvette Cooper MP and a Christening!
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